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Saturday, 26 October 2013

Back home from beautiful tropical north Queensland to horrific bushfires in NSW and to Winter temperatures and hail storms here in Victoria. Bit of a jolt to the system after experiencing the beautiful beaches, plants and animals of the Queensland rainforests.

Tropical rainforest meets sugarcane

banana plantation

banana flower turning to fruit

Josephine falls

Tarzan vines

Sugarcane plantation

Sugarcane train

Pre-harvest burning of sugarcane

Inisphail

Port Douglas

Cairns birdwing butterfly

Rock wallabies

Granite gorge

Jacaranda trees

Curtain fig tree

Daintree - where the forest meets the sea

Palm Cove

Cape Tribulation

Jack fruit

Daintree river in the distance

Tall Melaleuca (paperbark) trees

I was also lucky enough to be able to realise my childhood dream of going snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I saw hundreds of beautiful fish (including the famous 'Nemo' clownfish) corals, reef sharks (supposedly harmless but I swam away quickly - yikes!) and giant clams.

Google image - Clownfish

Back to reality and some sewing, I have done two more blocks for my Comfort Quilt. Each block is made up of eight mini-blocks...

When I was away I didn't sew much at all, just some for the CCCQ. When I opened the plastic pouch back home the block was damp (it was very humid in Queensland) and the white background had some dis-colouration (I'm guessing from the red fabric) and mould specks - aaagh. I wasn't going for the aged look, I was wanting fresh and bright! But it's not very noticeable and I didn't want to start over so I've continued on and hope it will literally "all come out in the wash" - don't worry I'll be using colour catchers.

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

My last post was about inspiration and this week it is about motivation. Last Saturday I had the pleasure of participating in the first 'appliqué day' for The Appliqué Guild of Australia . It was great to meet different people who's passion for appliqué had all taken them there. I even got to meet some of my bog followers :)

It was great to see the different projects that people were working on and the techniques being used.

Jennifer from Squilters placed her pieces under interfacing where she had drawn her own design - great for travelling.

Lynne from Treadles and Treasures was doing a type of back basting with machine stitching which is unpicked and then needle-turned. using the holes left by the machine stitches.

Dianne doing needle-turn

Joan (?) sewing hexagons out of beautiful Japanese fabrics

The show and tell was fantastic, I apologise for my photos as I was sitting side-on and I've tried to accredit names but sometimes I missed whose quilt it was. I am the worst person for names so if I've made a mistake or left yours out please let me know...

Charlotte by Veronique

A proud blurry moment - my Morrell

Anthea - Yoko Saito pattern LOVE those Japanese taupes

Sue - Irene Blanck's Floral Beauty

Jenny - Irene Black's Mosaics

Sue - Baltimore pattern by Neil Chisholm (?)

Cot quilts - Jennifer Murray's on the right (sorry don't know the one on the left)

Margaret Mew - Maltaville Album

Chris - Blackbird designs (modified?)

Irene Blanck - Aunty Green's Garden

We were then very fortunate to hear Julie Adamson as the guest speaker. She was very honest in sharing her personal story into appliqué that included samples that demonstrated her journey from beginner to award-winner.

L to R Margaret Mew, Julie Adamson & Irene Blanck

One of Julie's early quilts made for her daughter.

A traditional pieced quilt that 'had' to have appliqué added and an early 'leadlight window' appliqued piece in the foreground.

The award winning quilt Tribute

Julie generously passed around examples of her work so that we could closely examine her fine appliqué skills and technique...

Just stunning! She gave us lots of information on fabrics, threads and needles. My take home messages included - change things even by a couple of millimetres to get a result you'll be happy with and to be creative and 'make it your own'.The day has motivated me to seriously consider designing my own quilts.

I also did some sewing and finished the handles on Aunty Green.

I also got some good shopping ideas for a portable light and these handy pouches from Daiso. This one is all packed up with CCCQ block #13 ready to fly off to tropical north Queensland tomorrow (yay!)

A big thank you to all the committee members for organising a great day.